ABSTRACT
With its 2010 major installment of the multiplayer game World of Warcraft (WoW): Cataclysm, (Blizzard Entertainment, 2010) Blizzard builds further on the technology of phasing. This is a technology used to give the players a sense of progression and of playing in an environment where their progress makes an impact on the game environment. At the same time, it alters the perception of time and chronology for players when they try to create a consistent story from their gaming, as significant events may have taken place for one person in a group, but not for others. In group play, it causes interaction problems, as people need to be in the same phase in order to interact and cooperate, giving the rather confusing appearance of multiple “times” at the same time.
